Back by popular demand The Abbotsford News and Cycling4Diversity will be hosting The Diversity Challenge, giving you the readers the opportunity to provide your input on the diversity question.
Having organized this contest for many years, I have always enjoyed working with our readers and the public to create a discussion that will make people think and provide their valuable input. In that time this opportunity has allowed for some amazing responses that I have shared with all of you over the years and with some of the schools.
In this year’s Diversity Challenge there will be a question that respondents can answer in 140 characters, which the top three winners will have their answers posted on all of The News social media sites, including others prizes.
The question is: How has diversity impacted your life? Please, leave the hashtags #DiversityRocks #Cycling4Diversity, along with your response. In past years the question has been age restricted, but this year we’ve opened it to all ages and hopefully we will get an outstanding response before the March 31st deadline.
There will also be a colouring contest for children ages (five to 10), which parents can pick up at The News front desk, which is popular with young kids and usually get entire classes at schools participating vying for the top three spots. If you are a teacher and would like me to come to your class to speak to the kids about The Diversity Challenge, send me an email at my address below and I would be more than happy to come for a visit.
Whether it is the diversity question or the colouring contest, I think it’s a fabulous idea for schools to participate and it’s really exciting for me as an organizer to witness young minds in action tackling this opportunity in a positive way. There are ten cute characters that need to coloured in and diversified for our judges to inspect.
On a topic such as diversity, we at The Abbotsford News feel it’s an asset to be engaging with the public with our contest creating an understanding that diversity is our strength that will guide us into the future and build our community even stronger.
News publisher Andrew Franklin said, "The News is excited to partner with Cycling4Diversity in this awareness campaign. Our city reflects a true multicultural community and this campaign allows us to engage like-minded people to share a positive message in social media. A huge thank you to Ken Herar for spearheading this important message of an inclusive community."
As an example, here is my response to the question: It is our diversity that has allowed me the opportunity to meet and speak with so many people through this column and in so many other ways on topics and issues that affect us all. It is our diversity that always brings us together with an open mind.
Contact Ken Herar at kenherar@gmail.com